Is Ben Finegold as big a jerk as he seems in his videos?

Ben Finegold videos are awesome. It got my rating up 400 points. seriwan puts me to sleep.  Maybe i have the mind of an 8 year old, and i am awful at chess, im getting less awful.  Ben talks about the most important aspect  of chess, which is playing your opponent more than the position.  Its great for under 2000 players.  The highest my rating was when i was a kid was like 1300 from just playing scholars mate and the queens gambit, now i know a lot more so i lose more, but i know more.  When i got back into chess as an adult i was horrible, like 600 rating, now i'm around 1000.  You guys don't watch his stream so you don't get his jokes. And making the same bad jokes over and over again is a teaching method to remind you not to make game losing blunders.  Then you make those blunders then you remember the terrible joke and you laugh at how bad you are. Then you get better. like never play f3 and so forth. The answer is fries. 

Also ben is the only gm on that channel that breaks the 4th wall.  It's more entertaining to me anyway.

Everything I Needed To Learn About Chess
I Learned From Ben Finegold:

1.  Never Resign

_

The rest is just details.

Personally,I find him to be a funny,entertaining guy.Extremely smart as well.....I am always amazed at how he is able to put up with(humorously) the ridiculous comments that so many people post on his streams.

The guy is a "Classic"!-

As an anonymous fanboy, why aren't you using your real name? Makes no sense. Anyway, Finegold is known as a toxic and vile person in the chess scene, and as someone else wrote, one beatdown in real life would surely make him change his tune, as much as I'd not like to see him endure that. He's a toxic and hostile person who insults everyone, yet is extremely obese, unpleasant, and unlikeable.

Enjoy having your own opinion, but remember, you do not speak for the "chess scene", or for "experienced chess players".  

And as for Ben getting a beat down, it sounds like you are speaking about physical violence, not  a beating in chess.  If that is the case, you are one fcked up dude.  

I don't know (or care) how to reply on other messages while at the same time including those messages, but, let me have a go on some thoughs that came up after reading the sound argument of Botvinnik. 

1) Hmmm, maybe being unpopular among actually experienced chess players is a good sign. I don't know, because I don't know any actually experienced chess players. 

2) I never ever, in what way or form try to cover up my own awkwardness. The reason for that is quite obvious: I'm not a human being. 

3) I really think that whatever I think should not be a norm for whomever. I don't deny it would be funny or whatever, but don't mind me, whatever I am. 

4) But thought number three totally fails, because, hey, if I'm not the only one that thinks X, X must definitley be true. 

Guess playing chess doesnt necessarily correlate with sound arguments. 

Kind regards, Ton

forked_again, Ben is one of the most unliked players in all of chess for his hateful views. He's just a generally very toxic person. And as the other guy wrote, being some weirdo who talks tough online, certainly would make him change tune with one physical beatdown. I hope it doesn't happen, but if it did, he might become a way better human being: more humble, more intelligent, more reasonable, etc. Being unpopular in high level chess for Finegold means: 1. Low social intelligence 2. Extreme stupidity, alienating smart people. There is nothing good about it Frodsey There isn't one upside at all

Again you are are making broad accusations about what other people think without any factual basis.  Stick to your own ignorant opinion, as repulsive as that may be.  

I have never heard Ben say anything that would be interpreted as "talking tough."  You'd be better off trying to figure out how you can be a better person, instead of fixating on Ben.  

Great! That's what my clients (psychiatric patients convicted for the most evil crimes imaginable) tend to say, hoping to impress me. Guess that's not a coincidence. lol. 

Kind regards Ton

His online lessons at the St Louis Chess club are far more entertaining than his streaming. Perhaps, he is not paid enough as an instructor at the club, but I find it a little unbecoming for him to have his begging bowl out so often when streaming. 

And you can take my word for it, he is even worse, in person.

... aren't we all.

Can someone actually point to where Ben is doing anything other than being humorous and sarcastically funny in "any" of his videos? He's a damn good chess player and we'd be missing some fun instructional stuff if he were not around.Maybe not instruction on the level of J.B. yet he is enjoyable to watch.....he's also entitled to receive donations if anyone wishes to go that route.No laws broken.....I need to see the evidence where he's being "even worse in person".

Btw,I am not a fanboy.He's getting a bad rap here,without real evidence....Just my opinion.

On the contrary, most of the trolls you met on these forums, would be far more polite, if they were within striking distance of you.

For sure, varelse1, all of these people fanboying over Ben Finegold have never met him before and would not be talking tough, like forked_again is doing here. Ben's a nasty and toxic person. He posts political, abusive stuff towards groups of people and then insults people and bans them for calmly, factually correcting him. He just says a lot of hateful stuff and is full of rage towards different people, and I think if Ben had a physical wakeup call, it would all just stop one day. He's extremely unpopular among actual good chess players. They think he's stupid, not funny, and just a toxic fat guy who is weird, autistic, negative, and nasty.

With all due respect,where is the "actual evidence"?I for one am no fanboy,but I fail to see where all this Ben vitriol comes from.If it exists,where can I be witness to it? Admittedly,I have only viewed his videos.

You don't know chess professionals. Do you want to see their private messages with him, or what? Or ask them at tournaments and record it for an interview? See his Facebook activity (which he toned down due to being busted for a lot of nasty behavior). If you watch his videos, you mostly just see his lame jokes, but get to know nothing of his views.

No,I don't know chess professionals.I can only go by the videos,where he comes off as a humorous and sarcastically funny guy.I can't convict someone without evidence.Can you share it? Do you have any,or are you condemning Ben because you don't care for him? I am not trying to be disrespectful to you,or anyone else,but I think he deserves some kudos for streaming some enjoyable videos.

You can join the chess community if you want to be on the inside. I already told you about how Ben handles himself on Facebook and politically and with hate. He has blocked plenty of other chess professionals for factually correcting him in civil ways. What you're doing is concern trolling. You're pretending to be objective and care, but once I provide the evidence, you don't even care. Listing players that think Ben Finegold is a disgrace to chess (like Jacob Aagaard) won't add much to the discussion. You're pretending people are just hateful and don't have good evidence, while varelse1 knows him personally. No amount of evidence is acceptable to you, so just leave it as is or join the chess community. If I paste in a chat from a Facebook group from Ben would you like to wager $50 that it's exactly as described by people on this forum? Or are you not willing to put your money where your mouth is, while you claim to be fact-checking and "skeptical."